


Falling Star

by dandelionlily



Category: Howl no Ugoku Shiro | Howl's Moving Castle
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Unbeta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-18
Updated: 2007-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-04 00:42:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionlily/pseuds/dandelionlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Calcifer saw as he fell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Star

At the moment of its creation, the fire spirit knew only heat and the exhilarating freedom of flight. It streaked through the heavens, plummeting towards the planet’s surface. Dimly it felt others of its kind, separate consciousnesses, sharing its fall. When they struck the earth, they flared fully to life, sending out light and heat to the uncaring night, as if declaring, “Here I am!”

For many, that was the end. The falling stars struck the water’s surface and drowned, their dim shadow-bodies sinking to the bottom of the lake. The fire spirit felt its companions winking out of existence, one by one, swallowed by a cold darkness like the void where they were born. For the first time the fire knew fear and the desperate need to survive, yet it could do nothing to alter its trajectory.

The fire demon struck the surface and blazed into full existence, reaching out with desperate tentacles to find fuel and air. Braced for contact with the water, the fire spirit found itself safely nestled on a dry surface and howled with joy, leaping and sending brilliant sparks up towards its elders, the distant stars.

The demon was amazed to feel its joy mirrored by another consciousness. The Other was a gentle entity that sheltered the spark against its own flesh. It was more empathic communication than sound ripples that conveyed the Other’s words: “I caught you! Don’t worry, you’re safe now, little one.”

The fire exhausted its core feul and reached for more, feeding off the Other’s substance. The demon felt the Other’s pain at this intrusion, but need and survival outweighed all other considerations. “More!” it demanded, “MORE!”

“Here,” the Other offered, “Take what you need, friend.” A great maw swallowed the fire demon whole, suffocating it in moist, warm flesh. For an instant the demon panicked, flickering, before it encountered and merged with a very different kind of fire. Soulfire and demonfire merged, blue with orange, to forge a white-violet flame that expanded rapidly and burst from the enclosing flesh to burn freely in the air.

The demon-soul fire danced high in ecstasy, fed by its new core. When it settled, it could feel the Other waiting patiently, curiosity coloring its thoughts. “Little fire, I have given you my heart. We are bound, you and I. I’ll never be alone again. Tell me, friend, what is your name?”

The fire couldn’t understand all of the words, but it understood that he now shared the core of the Other’s being. It produced heat for the Other, warming and protecting it. The Other said, “Calcifer? That’s a wonderful name. My name is Howl. Someday, I’m going to be a wizard!”


End file.
